Alvie Franklin Jones Jr., the police officer who directed rush hour traffic at Loop 610 and Westheimer Road for the better part of two decades, used just his lips to produce a pitch so piercing that drivers would know to hit the brakes even with their windows sealed.

"If you've ever heard that whistle you will never forget, it was so loud," said his son, Alvie Jones III. "He was so animated out there. He was a character."

Jones died Oct. 21 at age 70 in the East Texas town of Diboll.

At his post in the middle of one of Houston's busiest intersections, Jones winked, danced and developed an extensive vocabulary of body language to conduct Galleria area drivers. Regulars would wave and shout greetings through their car windows.

Jones took on the traffic-directing assignment as an "extra job" on top of his regular night patrol shifts. He retired in 2000.

A native Houstonian, Jones, known to his family as Lynn, was the second-eldest of seven brothers.

"[Our father] was trying for a baseball team, but my mom said he got a basketball team with two subs," said James Jones, 71, the eldest brother, who lives in Alto.

During Jones' childhood the family moved to the Pasadena area, where the boys helped with chores and cared for the many animals including chickens, cows and sheep.

James recalled the older brothers pooling money to buy a 1952 Chevrolet to take girls on double and sometimes triple dates.

"He was always flamboyant at the house ... he did a lot of walking around the house on his hands, his feet up in the air," said another brother, Mark Jones, 66, also of Alto. "He clowns around a lot but yet he can be stern."

Joined HPD in 1976

Jones enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school in 1966. He served until 1970. During that time he married his high school sweetheart, Hollis Hurry, with whom he later had his son, Alvie Jones III.

He joined the Houston Police Department in 1976 and picked up the traffic assignment shortly before his son was born in 1979.

Jones' son recalled that when people would stop his father in the grocery store, Jones would tell them it was a twin brother directing traffic.

"They'd say, 'You're that fun person!' and I remember looking up and thinking, 'Dad, they're talking about you,' recalled Alvie Jones III. "He'd always look down at me and wink."

At the HPD, everyone knew Jones as "Buzzsaw." Stories of the origin of the nickname varied; it was a reference to his close-cropped military haircut when he joined the force, or to his once saying over the police radio that he could "buzz on over there and check it out." Either way, the name stuck.

As a young officer, Ray Hunt, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, rode along with Jones, and the two worked together for 18 years.

Hunt said he learned from Jones that humor could defuse tense situations and always to treat people with respect. Jones had a mantra, which he called the "relaxed mental attitude," and loved doing his job.

President saluted him

During the elder Jones' tenure at Westheimer and 610, he was struck by vehicles 56 times, including one serious collision that relatives said sent him flying nearly 30 feet into the air. He was a devout Christian who attended the non-denominational Berachah Church for more than 40 years.

Hunt remembered that Jones had told him about President George H.W. Bush's motorcade passing through Jones's intersection. Jones snapped to attention and saluted. Bush rolled down the window and returned the gesture.

In his last four years his health deteriorated and he used an oxygen machine to breathe. Hunt reached out to the former president, who agreed to write a letter acknowledging Jones.

"It's people like you who have lived by the age-old creed of 'duty, honor, country,' who have made this country great. I salute you, sir, and I send respectful best wishes," a line in the letter reads.

Jones' family plans a public service at 11 a.m. Friday at the Berachah Church at Sage Road and West Alabama.

Karen Chen joined the Investigative Team at the Houston Chronicle in October and spends Sundays running around the city on general assignments. Before moving to Houston, she covered social issues in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for the Washington Post as an intern. She is a recent graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she spent much of her time as part of the school’s Medill Watchdog team, collaborating with local news stations and newspapers to report on conflicts of interest, judicial corruption and government transparency. She has worked at the Chicago Tribune, The Star in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Ottawa Citizen in her Canadian hometown and The Beijinger magazine in Beijing, China.

At the Chronicle, Chen works with public records to create databases and dig deep with other reporters on several ongoing investigations. She strives to tell narrative stories that inspire empathy and discussion. Outside of work, you can find her reading three books at a time and wandering around in parking lots, desperately searching for her car.